10,000 Youth Will Stand was a youth-led, youth-based initiative geared towards creating advocacy, awareness and promoting civic engagement for the upcoming municipal elections on October 25th. This initiative was fostered through the collaborative efforts of a group of community based organizations events were held throughout the city (East, West and Central) in an attempt to generate interest amongst youth and participate in the electoral process. The goal of this initiative was to register and have 10,000 youth vote in the upcoming elections while also educating, engaging and enabling these youth through a series of capacity building events.

10000 Youth Will Stand Events
The first of our events called “The Toronto Youth Priority Symposium” (TYPS) was a mayoral debate held at University of Toronto and included all six top candidates. The TYPS was organized and implemented by six recent graduates of the Creative Institute for Toronto Young (CITY) Leaders. This was a very successful event which generated interest and a huge turnout of youth and adults alike.

The second of our events called “Be Heard” took place on September 17th and provided an opportunity for young people to learn more about the initiative itself and participatory voting process in the city.

Finally, our third forum called “Your Vote is Your Voice” was on Friday, October 1st at 6pm, and was held in Scarborough’s Dorset Park neighbourhood. It included a Youth Panel with members from the Dorset Park Youth Council who discussed key issues that concerned them in the elections, such as TTC. A representative from Elections Canada was also present to provide information on voting procedures.

The story about the 10,000 Youth Will Stand 3rd event got published on openfile.ca. OpenFile is a “collaborative community news site connecting citizens to their city and the reporters who cover it”. Here is a link to the story: Scarborough Youth Speak out About the Vote where you can also watch a short YouTube video.